DriveWise braking events

In DriveWise

• Hard Braking = vehicle decelerates more than 13 to 16 km/hour per second
• Extreme Braking = vehicle decelerates more than 16 km/hour per second

DriveWise says that the number of braking events does not matter - they are interested in patterns of braking.  Drivewise support told me the following:

My question: For your best drivers, people that get a 20 to 25% discount, what is the typical number of braking events per week? 

Drivewise answer:  We do not have a specific answer that we can give to that, as we look at the number of braking events that occur during the full monitoring period in relation to the number of kilometers driven. What we can tell you is that people earning between 20% and 25% would typically have less than one braking event per week.
We are aware that the drivers around you may cause you to need to brake suddenly, however these instances should be rare. Our suggestion to try to avoid needing to brake suddenly in situations like this is to leave plenty of room between you and the drivers around you whenever possible to reduce the need to react to their behaviours.

I am suspicious of this as I have had 6 hard braking events and no extreme braking events.  My last braking event  was more than a month ago and my braking stats icon does not change. I have on average 1 braking event per 162 km or 1 braking event per 32 trips.  Not a lot of braking events.

It is very easy to trigger a hard braking event. 

• 3 of my braking events were to slow down for a yellow light
• 1 braking event for a guy that stopped fast in front of me
• 1 braking event for a guy that almost cut me off as he entered my lane
• 1 braking event at a Costco parking lot as some jerk ran in front of me

Tricks to avoid braking:

• Drive 10 km/h under the speed limit
• Have 3 car lengths between you and the car in front
• Start to slow down BEFORE the traffic light turns yellow
• ... or speed up when when the traffic light turns yellow to not have to stop.
• If a small animal runs in front of your car, don't stop.

I would assume that having fast reflexes and being able to stop quickly is the sign of a good driver, especially when you drive in Toronto with stupid pedestrians jaywalking and ignorant bicyclists who think they own the road.


Other Reviews

Drivewise by Allstate 

Drive Wise: My Thoughts and Opinions on Driving Safe
My Experience Using Allstate's Drive Wise Device

Does Drive Wise actually encourage unsafe driving?

I feel like Drive Wise encourages running red lights. Maybe that's an exaggeration, but if I'm driving along at or even slightly below the speed limit, and the light I'm approaching goes from green to yellow to red very quickly--which seems to happen a lot around here--I have to make a decision to brake a little harder than usual or speed up and go through the red light just after it turns. I don't SLAM on my brakes to do that, but I sometimes have to slow down rather quickly. And each time that happens, Drive Wise records an "event" and lowers my projected discount. I'd be concerned that people who install Drive Wise might be tempted to run through those lights more often.